If Kevin Pietersen has really reached the end of his England career, if he
will never again jostle for a parking space among the sponsored Jaguars, he
wants a plan.

The man who has represented almost everywhere but felt at home nowhere, with the England tattoo and the South African accent, needs a change of approach and some fresh ideas.

Recent events on YouTube suggest that following Michael Atherton and Michael Vaughan into the media could be a mistake. But there is another way of finding recognition, even rehabilitation. It’s less obvious, implausible perhaps – the way of another England middle-order batsman: Paul Collingwood.

Just over 14 months ago Collingwood was dropped by England. Not because of some diva behaviour with a mobile phone, but because he was the wrong side of 30 when England were looking for sprightliness.

Collingwood was the Twenty20 captain, had captured the World Twenty20 Cup and had won a world record eight Twenty20 internationals in a row, but none of it mattered when the national selector, Geoff Miller, called him to a meeting. His time was up, he was to be replaced by the younger, leggier, Stuart Broad. He came out annoyed, hurt, surprised, frustrated.

“It was like a juggernaut had come along at full steam and completely wiped me out,” he said at the time, “... just disbelief.”

Collingwood considered his future, imagined retirement. He had to. He’d already stepped away from Test cricket after a personally disappointing Ashes series and had hoped to hang around as the Twenty20 captain until England defend their title in Sri Lanka next month.

He wasn’t born with the talent wardrobe of Pietersen. He is a gifted cricketer who made the most of every pixel of ability, concentration and tenaciousness. He ensured he was very fit, caught like a kingfisher and was a stirring leader. He averaged 40.56 in 68 Tests, and just over 35 – and took 111 wickets – in 197 one-day internationals. Collingwood punched above his weight. But he was now unwanted by England.

After some thought, he decided to stay at Durham, where he has played all his county cricket. He was still wanted by a couple of Twenty20 franchises and had a successful winter in Australia and South Africa before Indian Premier League side the Rajasthan Royals told him not to fly over because he would have no chance of getting a game. So he was at the Riverside ready for the beginning of the season.

Durham had been widely tipped as championship contenders but they had a horrible first half of the summer, and languished at the bottom of the table without a win in their first eight games.

In July the club offered Collingwood the captaincy in place of wicketkeeper Phil Mustard. And what a transformation. Under Collingwood’s leadership Durham have won four championship games in a row, had Lancashire in more trouble at Aigburth yesterday, and are all but guaranteed a first division spot next season.

Collingwood has loved the challenge of leadership, flourished with the responsibility. It has come, he says, just at the right time in his career.

Pietersen and Collingwood are of course very different – coal and gold, fuel and riches – but could Pietersen too find fulfilment back in county cricket, in conjunction, you assume, with a bit of IPL? He would have to eat some words, have to deal with what he perceives as lesser talents in a way that they don’t find morally offensive. Grow up a bit.

On the evidence of that great smile on reaching a century at Taunton, he has a soft spot for county cricket. Perhaps he even needs Surrey.

He failed to win many friends at KwaZulu-Natal, Nottingham, Hampshire or England. He doesn’t represent anywhere in the way that Collingwood, who carried the Olympic torch outside Durham Cathedral, cover-driving with the flame, represents Durham.

England spectators may not love Pietersen the man, but they love watching Pietersen the cricketer. He can be charming — many have spoken admiringly of him mingling and signing autographs after a match.

His England reign showed sparks of leadership. Perhaps he could be persuaded to tinker with his advisers. Satisfaction comes in the strangest places, redemption stranger still.